


we do not cover our faces

by sandyk



Series: Trope Pacey and Joey [2]
Category: Dawson's Creek
Genre: F/M, Parent Death, References to Schizophrenia, i really don't like eddie, references to breast cancer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 19:27:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10748256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: Pacey and Joey don't plan to break up so they have to work to stay together. (Sequel to the stuff that makes parentheses.)





	we do not cover our faces

**Author's Note:**

> Title and opening quote from Emily Pettit's Haul and Pull. not mine, no profit garnered. For the trope bingo squares poor communication skills, hurt comfort and mind games. I don't like Eddie at all. Thanks to A for beta help!

_We are logicians nevertheless. Strangely we ignore the detailed_  
_part of the document that is printed in small characters._  
_We stand holding a suspended pivoting pole with a bucket_  
_on one end and a counterweight on the other._  
_We do not cover our faces to become linked or united._

Joey left and Pacey had nowhere to go. He'd quit his job and he probably wasn't getting a reference there. Well, he'd burned that bridge and now he had to find another one. He tried to think of another cliche to comfort himself but none was coming. 

He watched the sunset as much as he could from the window in his bedroom. He was pretty damn sure Joey wouldn't come back. But, hell, they'd had great sex, and she'd showed him. He didn't have to do what he was doing. 

He opened the door when he heard her knock, pretty damn sure his happy surprise was all over his face. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," she said. "I guess I deserve that." She kissed him right there in the doorway.

She pushed past him to come inside. He followed her as she went straight up the stairs to his bedroom. She sat on the edge of his bed and said, "I am still unemployed and there are no jobs hiring except for waitressing which I have sworn off. How was your day?"

"I liquidated everything I could liquidate, traded in or returned everything that went with the lifestyle I was accustomed to, spent an embarrassing amount of time on the phone with Paula, wrote two resumes, and sent out applications to three places. I'm going to end up back in Doug's apartment and washing dishes at Leery's Fresh Fish, but I can afford two months here in Boston," Pacey said. He sat down next to her. "I was absolutely sure you weren't coming back."

"We have crappy communications skills," Joey said. "We're not going to break up so we're going to fix that." She kissed him, her mouth open and warm. He loved her so very much. 

She said, "I may have gotten you a job, though."

"You?" He ran his hand down her arm, held her at the waist. 

"While I was looking for a job for me, I was wracking my brain for any connections anywhere I might have. And I realized I don't know anyone to help me, but I know someone for you. Bodie." She smiled that sweet perfect smile she had. "When Alex was born, Bodie's cousin came to visit, and she is frightening. She was a nurse but now she's a broker or financial advisor, whatever the title. She works here in Boston. She's very moral. Super moral. So I called Bodie and asked him if he could check to see if she knew someone who was hiring. Then he called me back 20 minutes later because Bodie is awesome. He called her straightaway and, it turns out, she's looking for someone with a series 7 license to assist in her work."

Joey handed him an address. It was a very fancy address and Pacey immediately recognized the name of the firm she worked for. "Wow," he said. "You're the perfect girlfriend. Did I mention I love you?"

"You did, and I deserve it," she said, grinning at him. "I will definitely need a sugar daddy at this rate."

"Maybe I know someone, what kind of job are you looking for?"

"At the English department, somewhere at Worthington, or some kind of internship, design stuff, writing. Something like that," she said. She kissed him again, and he remembered the perfect feel of her lips against his. 

"Okay," she said. "Our poor communications skills. I was having so little success today, and Audrey yelled at me about how everything in her life was my fault so --"

"When did Audrey say that?"

"I called her and I called Dawson to let them know we're back together. You get to call Andie. Dawson was pretty nice about it, Audrey yelled at me. Her parents won't let her come back to school until she does 3 months in rehab because they are going to have to pay a pretty penny to get her back in Worthington after her grades last semester. Which is all my fault, of course. Because I was a bad friend. Also, now I'm dating you," Joey said. She shrugged. 

"Man," Pacey said. "It's more my fault, I should have listened to Doug, I shouldn't have paid for everything. She should have had to face the consequences," Pacey said. He pulled back from Joey a little and rubbed his eyes. 

"It's not your fault. It probably is a little mine, I shouldn't have told you not to break up with her but I was high on idiocy," Joey said. 

"No," Pacey said. "You wouldn't have swayed me. You know how I love being the good guy riding in on the white charger."

"You are a good guy," Joey said. "You never abandoned me like Eddie."

"I sailed away after graduation," Pacey said. "Or during, to be more accurate."

"Yeah, but that was after we broke up, after we'd talked about it and come to a little bit of an understanding. You didn't just disappear and not even tell me you were breaking up with me," Joey said. She smiled at him again. "I'm a little grateful to Eddie, frankly. I needed a wake up call."

"No one needs to be treated like that," Pacey said. 

"Thank you," Joey said. "Okay, our bad skills. I thought we could do, like a game. Two fears and a happy."

"A happy?" 

"It's like two truths and a lie, didn't you ever have to do that game in class?" Joey shifted closer to him and put her hands on his thighs. "So we each say two things we're afraid of, about ourselves or our relationship. And one thing that makes us happy."

He pressed his lips together and then smiled at her. "Okay, that sounds ridiculous, but you know what? I'd do a million ridiculous things for you. But you have to go first."

She nodded. "I will be your example. Okay, okay. I'm afraid of you. Not you hurting me, but you're amazing, and you and me, it's like, forever. You make me feel alive, remember? In a way no one else does. So that's scary. The enormity of that. I'm also scared because, well, I've been really good at lying to myself in support of this idea that Dawson and I would work as a couple. I did it after you left, and then again this summer, at the beginning of the year. And it's so easy to live with that, to skim along on the surface of life instead of really living."

Pacey said, "Wow, you have some very articulate feelings. Do you have a happy thought, or a happy, cause calling it a happy is not something I like doing."

"I do have a happy thought," Joey said. "You think a happy sounds sexual, don't you?"

"Yes I do," Pacey said. 

"Whatever," Joey said. "I'm happy because I'm with you. You make me happy."

Which was a total cop out, Pacey thought. He said, "I love you, too." He took a deep breath and leaned back a little. He had to set his alarm, he had this possible interview tomorrow that Bodie and Joey had got for him. He said, "I'm afraid of what happens next. I've been working since high school, but the yacht wasn't exactly a tough job and then when I was at the restaurant, half the time I didn't have to pay rent or utilities. Then I was living off Audrey all summer and then I was working for Satan. So I'm good at lying and selling. Using my charm cheaply. So now I have to have a real job, do something worthwhile, pay my bills. I can't, I'm playacting at being an adult, Doug knows, everyone knows. Rich knows. How am I supposed to work for a real boss?"

He decided he hated this new idea of Joey's. He looked at her and sighed. She was worth it, he knew it. He was sure of it. Joey shifted again and got on his lap. She said, "Okay, number two."

"That felt like more than two," he said, hands already on her waist. "Fine, I'm afraid as soon as Eddie comes back, you'll leave me. And I'm happy we'll probably have sex tonight."

"That feels like a good start," Joey said. She leaned forward, grinding a little on his dick. Enough for a happy.

Pacey's two favorite things to do sexually were fucking and eating pussy. Audrey once called him a vagina addict, which Pacey didn't debate. It was probably because the first sex thing he ever did besides kissing was when Tamara pushed her stockings down to her ankles and spread her legs, pushing his head down there. Or gently guiding, she gently guided and told him what to do. They had sex later that night, which was also fantastic, his dick inside her like his tongue and fingers had been. 

Though he had started to feel a little grossed out by Tamara. He was barely 20 but even now he saw 15 year old girls and they seemed unbelievably young to him. 15 year old boys, too, and he wondered why he'd been so attractive to Tamara. 

He was thinking about all of this after Joey had fallen asleep, after he'd gotten to do everything he enjoyed with Joey. She was naked and asleep and he was behind her, his arm around her. It would be really nice, he thought, to keep having her in his life, if he was that lucky.

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Joey finally found a job. It took close to two weeks which was two weeks too many for her, but since she was trying to leave waitressing behind, she was being picky. She spent nearly night at Pacey's place so nearly every night Emma would say, "Thanks for abandoning me."

"I want to do something else besides waitressing when I graduate so I think I need to get started on that work path now," Joey said. She sat on the couch, watching Emma chop at Pacey's hair. Pacey was finally about to start work after waiting out the background check, he'd decided he needed a hipper hair cut. He was going to be back wearing a tie every day and a blazer or sweater every single day.

"I can't believe you got a tattoo," Joey said. "Seriously, I think that was some over the top asserting your independence from being the man."

"You're the only who sees it," Pacey said. 

"I thought it was on your chest," Emma said. "Don't move your head, idiot."

"Fine, until we go swimming this summer, Joey is the only who sees it. I didn't realize you hated it."

"I don't hate it. I loved that boat, too," Joey said. "I just think you're overreacting to what is not a new dress code or style uniform."

"This place is way more conservative than working for Rich," Pacey said. "It's good, though, I like it. Background checks, training in ethics and preventing fraud, these are the kind of things that make me think I can do this job without feeling the need for 20 showers when I get home."

"But you still got the tat," Emma said. "I totally approve, mind you."

"I am actually 20," Pacey said. 

Joey was starting work at a library on the Worthington campus. It was the architecture library, but she was still shelving and digitizing and all sorts of things that would look good on a resume. Joey liked libraries. The architecture library had some beautiful books.

After Emma left to go to work, Joey said, "So along with my work news, I had some other news. I debated telling you, but god knows, that would be more bad communication, or me playing mind games on you like I know what you're allowed to be mad about or allowed to react to, period."

"Which, as much as I love the guy, is more Dawson than me," Pacey said. "He only does it with you, which is weird."

"I still, I can't believe the things he said to me. He's bringing up me breaking up with him when we were 16 like it was still something I should feel guilty about it. Definite mind games," Joey said.

"So what's the bad news I get to react to however I want?" Pacey rubbed his chin. She could tell he missed the goatee, but she was still firm on no access to her pussy with that thing on his face. She felt like she had grown that she could think pussy in her head and not blush. She'd had sex with 4 men since her first times with Pacey. She was in control of her sexuality. Or something, she thought, blushing anyway.

"Okay, it was all Harley. Professor Hetson's daughter. She's obsessed with me and Eddie and since she was convinced I was so sad about it, because she hasn't even seen me since you and I got back together, she tracked down Eddie at his parents' place and begged him to come back. I guess he felt like an asshole and thought I would forgive him, or Harley just lied that I had forgiven him so he showed up at my dorm. This is why I hate being in that room," Joey said.

"I thought you felt lonely and it made you feel guilty about your nonexistent sins against Audrey," Pacey said, frowning. "So Asshole shows up and what?"

"What do you think, Pacey? I told him I didn't forgive him, Harley had lied to him, his actions weren't something you come back from and just talk out, and also, I was done with scrubs like him and back with my ex-boyfriend. He knows me so very well, he assumed I meant Dawson," Joey said. He'd looked like an idiot, dumbfounded and then yelling at her. She skipped over that, not to hide anything from Pacey but because she was embarrassed. Eddie was not, as Audrey said, some perfect combination of Pacey and Dawson, he was Pacey lite, but without all the things that made Pacey so special. "We did not get back together and I don't care what happens to him after this."

"You care a little," Pacey said. "You liked him, you slept with him, there has to be something redeeming about the guy."

"Maybe," Joey said. "I think I'm going to wait a few years to remember that." She ran her hands through her hair and wondered if she should get a haircut, too. 

In the morning, she watched Pacey get ready for his first day of training. "You get paid for this, right? Also, aren't you already trained? You passed that exam thing."

"It turns out I barely know anything, not about a real firm," Pacey said. "Like I said, a good thing."

"I'm excited for you," Joey said. 

He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "I'm off."

"Break a leg," Joey said. She lay back on the bed and pulled the blanket up to her chin. 

Jack walked right in without knocking. "Hey," Joey said. "Knock."

"Whatever, I've seen you naked," Jack said. 

"No, you haven't," Joey said. "When?"

"Oh, I dunno, more than once since you and Pacey got back together and started having sex on the couch in the living room," Jack said.

"We haven't done that -- very often," Joey said. "How are you, Jack?"

"I'm good," Jack said. "Andie called me last night, she told me to say hi."

"Hi, Andie," Joey said. "I can't believe she's studying in Paris, I am so envious."

"I think Dad wishes she was at Harvard," Jack said. "It would be less expensive."

xoxoxoxox

Pacey liked his job and he really liked his boss. She was the first mentor like figure he'd had in ages who was actually worthy of it. He did a lot for Mrs. Brown but he didn't advise anyone financially. He listened to Mrs. Brown doing that. She talked to her clients, she talked about diversifying their portfolio, being careful about hot stocks. She talked to them about their kids, her kids, she treated them like people. She told Pacey he should get a college degree. "If you want to be more than this, you need more than charm and experience, I promise." She told him he only had the job because Bodie had recommended him. She had planned to hire someone else. "I expect you to live up to his words about you."

Pacey kept his workspace neat and organized because he wanted to, he wanted to do well. He had one picture of Joey from right after she started her new job, before she got her haircut. 

He had a flip phone, but he made all his personal calls on his personal breaks. But then Jack called him on his work line. "Man, are you okay?"

"No," Jack said. "I didn't know what to do. My mom died, Pace. Just a heart attack. After all this time, she just had a simple heart attack."

"Jack, I'm so sorry. Are you at the apartment? I can come home, I can help with whatever you need," Pacey said. Mrs. Brown came out of her office and raised her eyebrow at him. 

Jack said, "Please?"

"I'll be home soon," Pacey said. He prepared himself to plead his case with Mrs. Brown. But she just looked at him. He said, "My friend's mom died. I've known him for years, he's my roommate."

"Take the afternoon," Mrs. Brown said. "Call me tomorrow morning if you need more time. Please tell your friend I'm very sorry for his loss."

"Thank you," he said. 

By the time he got home, Jen was with Jack on the couch. Pacey said, "Hey, Jack. You need me to call anyone?"

"No, Jen and I got it. Andie gets in tonight at some insane late hour --"

"I can drive you to the airport," Pacey said. "Does she have a place to stay? I'll clean up my room and she can have my room if she needs it."

"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks."

Joey came by and sat with Jack. After Pacey had cleaned his room to be Andie acceptable, he made dinner for everyone and set aside some of it for Andie to warm up when she got in, if she was hungry. Joey smiled at him and kissed him before leaving because she was not sharing the couch with him when she could sleep in an actual bed. 

Pacey drove Jack at 1 am to Logan, parking in short term parking. He really did miss his old car with the seat warmers and fine slick machinery. Now he drove a used Accord which was boringly dependable. Like me, Pacey thought. 

He trailed behind Jack as they walked into baggage claim for the international flights. He kept thinking about Mrs. McPhee in the grocery store. He wondered what sort of mother she'd been before Tim died. He kept his mouth shut and waited with Jack for Andie.

Even with her eyes red from crying, she looked beautiful. It made him feel good when he saw her, like he was 16 and mattered for once to someone. She and Jack hugged and cried on each other. Then she looked at him and said, "Pacey. That's an interesting hair cut."

"Good to see you too, McPhee," Pacey said, pulling her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry about your mom, sweetheart."

"Thank you," she said, sniffling. 

Pacey didn't get to bed until 3 am and then he slept like shit because he was sleeping on a couch that was too short for him. He gave up at 6 am and started making breakfast. He left a message for Mrs. Brown that he would be in late. He added he didn't know when the funeral was so he couldn't be sure which day he needed off for that. 

Emma chose to forgo her usual loud shake and took the pancakes he'd made. She also took the coffee. Then Jack came downstairs and had his pancakes. He only cried a little and Emma and Pacey ignored it because Jack liked to be manly. Jack said, "My dad's picking me up at 8 or so. Should I wake up Andie? We just need to go over arrangements."

"You should wake her up," Pacey said. "Wait until 7 or so, she'll want to clean up and get dressed, right?"

"Yes, I would," Andie said as she came downstairs, still a little spring in her step. "Do you have decaf? I'm trying to avoid caffeine."

"I have tea, we live with an English lassy now," Pacey said. He'd already brewed the tea in case Emma wanted it. 

Andie smiled at him and sat down next to Jack. She took three pills and drank her tea and took a plate of pancakes. She sniffled and cried a little and then got to eating. 

"I'm so glad you're here," Andie said to him when he got home from work. "Jack and your other roommate went out with Jen and Joey."

"Well, of course I'm here, I live here," Pacey said. "Do you want dinner? I can cook something."

"I know you can, Pacey. Why did you ever quit cooking?"

"I didn't really have a great reason, frankly. But I like what I'm doing now, too," Pacey said. "How's the Sorbonne?"

"It's not pronounced sore-bone," Andie said, with a little laugh. "It's fine. Everything's fine. My life is going great except for the part where my mother just died."

He sat down next to her on the couch and hugged her. It was funny how well she fit in his arms. Different from Joey, but not bad. "You know I'm sorry. Funeral's really tomorrow, huh?"

"Yeah," Andie said, talking into his chest. "You know, it's really just me and Jack and my dad. We have the service tomorrow and then we bury her next to Tim. Or they will. I guess the gravestone will go up in the summer when I'm home."

He patted her back. "I'm still sorry, Andie."

"She wasn't, I hadn't even talked to her for two months. She was just sick. What kind of conversation could we have?" Andie let him go but she was still leaning on him. "I was probably a bad daughter."

"You were definitely not a bad daughter. Like everything else, you were great," Pacey said. "She knew you loved her and, in her own way, I think she was always proud of you. She wanted you to be well and happy and she saw you be both things."

Andie cried a little, getting tears and snot on his best sweater. He ran his hands through her hair. She said, "You're still good at finding exactly the right words."

"You were always an inspiration to my better Pacey," he said. He kissed her forehead. He thought, suddenly, he should make sure she knew he was with Joey. But she probably did. He had a vivid memory in a split second of having sex with Andie, her skinny waist under his hand. He patted her back again. 

"Don't worry, Joey was very nice about letting me know you're taken again," Andie said. She sat up straight. "I have a boyfriend, you know."

"I wasn't thinking that at all," Pacey lied. "Tell me about the boyfriend."

He slept badly on the couch again. He put on his best black suit and drove with Joey to the funeral. Andie had been right, there weren't many people there. He wondered where Mr. McPhee's colleagues were, all the people he worked with. Where were the people who had been richy rich friends with the McPhees before Tim died? He sat down with Joey, Jen and Grams. Andie and Jack and Mr. McPhee cried, Grams prayed. Pacey held hands with Joey and stared at Andie the whole time. 

On the way out, he said to Joey, "Sorry if I've been absent."

"I'm really upset, Pacey, what kind of low person takes so much time comforting one of his favorite people and doesn't spend every minute taking care of his girlfriend? An awful person."

"Yeah, that's certainly true. But I know you have a lot of memories and associations when it comes to parents passing away," Pacey said. "I love you, you know."

"I do know, love," she said. "Just don't make Andie feel better with your penis and we're good."

"I thought you'd be okay with that," Pacey said. "It made Dawson feel better."

Jen burst out giggling behind them. "Pacey, you suck, you made me laugh at a funeral."

"I didn't laugh," Joey said. "I'm better than you, Jen."

Jen giggled again. "I'm getting away from you two. You're inappropriate."

They watched her walk over to Jack. 

Andie stayed one more day before leaving. Pacey was admittedly grateful to have his bed back but he was still worried about Andie and Jack. He called Andie every day for a week just to make sure she was okay. He told Joey about every single time and she just nodded and said, "Good."

xoxoxoxoxo

Joey was afraid, actually mortally afraid. She was so afraid that she was violating her cardinal rule about honesty and telling Pacey all the important things in her life. Because she didn't need to be afraid, at least not yet. She was being silly. 

Worse, she told Jack first. It was worse than not telling Pacey because Jack's mom had just died. Despite how awful she was being, Jack said, "That isn't silly and I don't think you're being a jerk." 

"Your mom dies and all I can think about is whether I'm going to die from breast cancer. It's a little jerky," Joey said. 

"Not that much," Jack said. "I worry all the time. Do you know when the symptoms for schizophrenia start to manifest usually? In your 20s. For the next ten years I'm going to have that fear in the back of my head every day that maybe this morning I hear something that isn't there or I just can't process the world. I envy Dawson a little, he doesn't have to be afraid he'll get run over by his genes. But you and I do."

"But your mom and Andie weren't sick before Tom died," Joey said. "Were they?"

"Not Andie, but my mom, yeah. She wasn't as bad, but she had days she didn't leave her room and we just, we never talked about it."

"That sucks," Joey said. "My great aunt died of ovarian cancer. My mom died of breast cancer. The odds aren't good, you know."

"But they're not 100%," Jack said. "For either of us."

"I'm not good on focusing on that kind of thing," Joey said. 

"How about Bessie?" 

Joey said, "Bessie just doesn't think about it. She gets her exams and then she just puts it out of her head. That's what she tells me. I should be able to do that, I guess."

"Or you could be Joey and do what your brain does," Jack said. "God, I hate this class. Please distract me more so I never have to think about this psychology crap again."

"Jen said you picked a major," Joey said.

"Sort of. I'm taking the track necessary to teach. Hopefully high school." Jack smiled. "Maybe I'll be the first English teacher in Capeside's history who isn't a pervert or an asshole."  
"I had a substitute once who was just plain boring," Joey said. "You'll be a great teacher."

Joey had been working at the library for two months. She liked the quiet and the librarians. She really liked looking at the books and the drawings. 

She was stewing about the latest iteration of student assholery as she walked back to her dorm room. She was very pleasantly surprised to see Pacey waiting for her. He even had expensive coffee for her. "You look so handsome when you have coffee for me," she said. 

He said, "I met your new roommate." He said very quietly, "Yoicks."

Joey'd known she was going to get a new roommate and that said roommate would be someone who wanted to transfer out of their room but she hadn't expected Bitsy. She was like Nellie Olsen, if Nellie had been from Charleston and richer and even more obnoxious. And more racist. She'd seen the faces Bitsy made at Joey's pictures of Alexander and Bodie. 

"I'm so glad I have you," Joey said. "And you have your own apartment."

"Shall I take you there?"

"Onward McWitter," Joey said. She trailed after him a little so she could watch his pretty butt. 

On the drive to his apartment, Joey decided it was time to tell the truth. She said, "Okay, two fears. See, I'm afraid of being the kind of person who centers herself and makes everything about her, which is why I haven't told you my biggest fear. I mean, I'm not jealous of you and Andie being best friends now, or I'm just a little jealous but I know you love me. So I feel like you might perceive me as making it all up to be like Andie so your attention would be on me." She took a deep breath and looked over at Pacey. He was looking at her, worried, she could tell. 

"I would never think that, Joey," Pacey said. "That's not who you are. What are you afraid of telling me?"

"Ever since Mrs. McPhee died, all I can think about is probably I'm going to get breast cancer and die young like she did. I told Jack, because we're both being threatened by our family trees, except he has schizophrenia and I have cancer," Joey said.

Pacey took his hand off the wheel to hold her hand. He squeezed her hand. He said, "Andie doesn't have schizophrenia, she's bipolar."

"Mrs. McPhee had a form of schizophrenia," Joey said. 

"So you think you're going to get cancer because your mom and great aunt did," Pacey said. "I gotta say, it doesn't sound irrational. It's something to consider. But you can't make it unhappen worrying about it every day. I know that's easy for me to say because the only thing to worry about on my family tree is that one day I'll somehow become a cop, but I think it's something you should consider."

Joey smiled at him and realized she was tearing up. "I'm happy you're here. You make me feel better."

"That's all I want to do," Pacey said. 

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Pacey called his boss Mrs. Brown. Other people in the office called her Lina, Bodie called her Auntie Lili and Pacey had now heard Alexander call her Aunt Lee. But she'd never said Pacey got to use that name, so he didn't. She was a great boss, in his opinion. She wanted him to do better and be better, she didn't hold him to unrealistic standards, but she expected him to do well. It was nice, even though the job was awfully stressful. He was also starting to have some decent money, since he didn't have student loans and he'd settled up his credit card to nothing a few months after he left working for Rich in Hell. 

Joey's semester was done and she'd managed to get a pretty good job as a summer receptionist at a publishing house. She was paying a pittance of the rent on the apartment over Pacey and Jack's objections. Emma didn't care, she always took the checks. 

Mrs. Brown stood in her doorway. She said, "Did you go and buy jewelry on your lunch break?"

"I did. Made my final payment, not that it was superduper pricey, not two month of pay expensive. Anyway, I bought Joey a bracelet because she actually wears those more than earrings or necklaces. We've been together 6 months this time," Pacey said. 

"This time," Mrs. Brown said, slightly rolling her eyes. "Are you making her dinner?"

"Not on a weeknight, I'm not," Pacey said. "I made her dinner when she got an A on her big thesis project in her English class, and she made a joke about cheap gifts. I know it was a joke, but just in case she meant it subconsciously, tonight we are going out."

"What was her big thesis project? Somehow between you and Bodie, I managed to miss her topic," Mrs. Brown said. 

"Breast cancer," Pacey said. "She did research on it, the genetics and environment factors, and she also wrote about watching her mother die from it, worrying whether she would get it or Bessie could get it. It was amazing, she should have gotten an A plus plus." Pacey looked up at Mrs. Brown. He said, "Actually, I wanted to ask you about that. Joey's mom was under 40 when she died, and her great aunt died at 35 of ovarian cancer. Her chances are high, right?"

"You read her report," Mrs. Brown said. "Are you worried?"

"Of course I am," Pacey said. "I want to spend the rest of my life with her, I want to know so I can support her and help her."

"You want to spend the rest of your life with her," Mrs. Brown said. 

"Since I was 17 and we were arguing on the side of the road," Pacey said, smiling. "Now we're back together. Obviously I want her alive as long as possible."

"Of course," Mrs. Brown said. She went over the risks and possible choices Joey might make. Then she said, "Pacey, you've been here over 5 months, you can call me Lina now."

"Thank you, Lina," he said. He felt doubly blessed. He opened the box with Joey's bracelet. No diamonds, nothing fancy, just like her engagement ring would be someday. He thought of that as a happy, then rolled his eyes at himself. Potter and her silly communication games. He would have to tell her he thought they were a good idea at some point, but for now, he was holding off.


End file.
